Kirsten's Café: a menu to remember

by Ivy Farguheson, Photos by Julie WIatt

Luis, Meron, and Yonas, from three different countries, are part of what they jokingly call a "United Nations" staff.

Kirsten's Café
301-495-9686
9326 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD
www.kirstenscafe.com
Mon-Fri 6:30am - 6pm
Sat & Sun 7am - 2pm

When you enter Kirsten's Cafe on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, one of the first things you'll notice is that this quaint cafe has expanded. It has swallowed whatever used to be next door to create more "sit-down" space. What started as a quaint pastry and coffee shop has thrived and grown into a restaurant with a menu that might surprise you.

Open from 6:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m.- 2 p.m. on the weekends, Kirsten's has a wide selection of breakfast and lunch items including sandwiches and salads. But, if you're like many coffee shop consumers, you'll be quickly drawn to the dessert case, filled with beautiful cakes and tortes, cupcakes and cream puffs. You might even be tempted to scratch off eating a meal and dive right into the desserts, but first things first. The desserts aren't going anywhere, yet, so there will be plenty of time to get to that later. Take a look at the lunch menu and see all that this cafe-turned-restaurant has to offer.

Grilled Portabello Panini

Scanning through the lunch menu, you'll find a variety of choices, vegetarian and carnivorous, that taste as great on the plate as they look on paper. The panini offerings, especially the Grilled Portobello Panini, are savory and satisfying. The foccacia bread is grilled just right, not too hard and not too soft. And the portobello mushrooms, along with the tomatoes and blue cheese inside the panini, make the entire experience a delight for your taste buds. Warning: you will not want to share the panini.

The salad offerings are also delicious, from the Mango Chutney Chicken to the Tuna Nicoise. They are packed with flavor and seem to strike just the right balance. Salads also come in small and large portions, perfect for when you wish to add a side-salad to a sandwich or a soup. Speaking of soup, I would strongly recommend the Pumpkin Mushroom Soup, by the cup or the bowl. Sure, it's spring and the last thing you want to do is eat anything that reminds you of October or November but, trust me, it's worth it. This rich and creamy Pumpkin Mushroom Soup will have you licking the spoon to the last drop. You won't even mind the extra mile you'll have to run to burn it off.

Broccoli Quiche

Kirsten's also offers quiche, both veggie and meaty options. Like everything else, the quiche, which you can get with a side salad, is perfect. I strongly suggest the broccoli quiche, if you are a true veggie eater, or even if you're not. The quiche is filled with broccoli florets that aren't soggy or rock hard, like some quiches can be, and the crust is flaky and buttery. Unfortunately, the side salad, especially the green side salad, is not much of a match for any of the dishes. Alongside the quiche or the soup, both flavorful and perfectly portioned, this side salad lacks both. All you will see is just a poor, lonely, mixture of greens with some average dressing on top. You almost feel sorry for the side salad and wished you didn't get it. So, don't. Be happy with your "entrees" for lunch and keep it at that.

Chocolate Caramel Torte

If you save room for dessert, you will not be disappointed. Whether it's the Bread Pudding, which is truly carbohydrate comfort squared, or the cupcakes sprinkled with slivers of dark chocolate, you'll be glad you saved room for some sweets. If it's chocolate you crave, try a slice of the Chocolate Caramel Torte. Off the bat, your teeth may start to cringe at the thought of all that sweetness, but this slice is not as sugary as you would think. The caramel appears to be mixed with a creamy dark chocolate so the taste is not as bitter as, say, a dark chocolate Hershey's bar. The frosting on top is light and slightly sweet, but the torte itself is so incredibly rich you might not want to eat it all in one sitting. Save some for later when it will taste equally as good.

The food at Kirsten's Cafe is good, better than you would expect for a coffee shop. Fortunately it is also better than the service. If you are in a hurry or if you're an easily frustrated person, perhaps you should wait a month or two. It appears that the service has not caught up with the expansion, with servers forgetting items you already ordered (and paid for) and only a few people knowing what options are available. You get the sense that everyone may be new at this cafe, except for the cook, and maybe in a couple of weeks everyone will get everything down. Let's hope that's true. Either way, the food, as well as the decor, make up for the service issues. Blanketed in soft orange and red colors, you feel more like you are in a sit-down restaurant rather than a coffee shop in a strip mall overlooking Georgia Avenue south of the Beltway. Kirsten's Cafe is not a perfect spot today, but with any luck, it will be soon enough.

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